


Cocaine Burnout Angel Eases My Mind In The Early Morning (aka Late Night Angel)

by baehj2915



Series: The Sun Always Rises 'verse [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deleted Scenes, Developing Friendships, F/M, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Pre-Relationship, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 04:09:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12573380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baehj2915/pseuds/baehj2915
Summary: A younger Pike and Grog spend their spring break at a younger Scanlan's brand new mansion to commemorate his brand new status as a pop sensation. Pike and Scanlan have never spent much time together and busting through that barrier in their relationship has some mixed results.A flashback deleted scene set before the events ofThe Sun Always Rises.





	Cocaine Burnout Angel Eases My Mind In The Early Morning (aka Late Night Angel)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tameila](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tameila/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Sun Always Rises](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10013741) by [tameila](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tameila/pseuds/tameila). 



> this is part of a fic exchange between [tameila](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tameila/pseuds/tameila) and i for our individual modern aus, as a testament to our love. this fic is set many years before the events of The Sun Always Rises and takes place when Pike is 20, Grog is 23, and Scanlan is 24. so reading her wonderful magnum opus is a necessity.
> 
>  
> 
> enjoy!
> 
>  
> 
> ~*~

After seventeen minutes of looking for the kitchen, Pike found someone who directed her to a dining room where she could wait for breakfast to be brought to her. 

Last night had been the same thing. And the day before that. 

Grog convinced her to come along to Scanlan’s new pop star mansion, even though she was pretty sure he’d only extended the invitation to her out of politeness. If she stayed back then Grog and Scanlan would be free to have all the parties they wanted without a clerical studies younger sister hanging around as a buzzkill. But Grog insisted Scanlan had wanted her there too, which was kind of him, even if Pike didn’t exactly know what to do with being invited to a mansion. 

She’d seen a few before in her life, from the outside. Staying inside one was different. 

For one, she couldn’t get anyone to let her in the kitchen. She could make her own food, really. And all she wanted was a bowl of cereal and an orange. Maybe some of those really good strawberries that had been at breakfast the day before. Surely, she could procure this herself, but none of the staff were having it. They looked distressed whenever she suggested the idea of doing something for herself. 

The first day, that had been exciting and fun, to be waited on for everything. The second day it quickly lost its charm and she felt more like everyone assumed she was incompetent. 

Still, staying at the mansion had been pretty fun. 

The first night they got in they really only had time for a late dinner of ordered in Thai food and a tour of the pertinent parts of the mansion. There was a moment of weirdness where Scanlan accidentally put her in the wrong room at the end of the night. It was covered in rose petals. She couldn’t help but laugh and tease him about how he really had to clean up better between girls. He blushed furiously, which she didn’t think he could do, and showed her a spare room completely free of previous signs of romance. 

After their first full breakfast, or brunch really, that had been more like restaurant-food than home-food, they got to see the indoor pool and the sauna and the recording studio. There were a lot more rooms, most of them not totally furnished yet. Scanlan had planned to take them out on the town to see all the music and record shops, the museums, the bars--but one of the execs from Scanlan’s label came by and said they needed to record dubs and promotional material for the overseas releases of _Royal_ , so that got put on the back burner. Grog and Pike spent most of the day in the pool and playing X-Box. It took longer than expected, but Scanlan was still wired after the long session so he took them to a concert for a band called Death Blossom to make up for it. Because of course Scanlan would live in a place where you could just go to an _electronicore witch house_ concert on a Thursday night. He even got them backstage to meet the band, who looked less like tall girls in spikes and latex backstage and more like tired and giddy fans of Scanlan. 

Despite Scanlan’s staff doing too many things for her, the mansion was nice. It was like the best hotel she’d ever stayed in but better because they only other guests were Grog and Scanlan. She was excited to get out into the city and see things on the third day. 

After another late breakfast, they went into the city in Scanlan’s brand new, more-expensive-than-college-tuition car. They did a little shopping first. Pike had to stop Scanlan from buying too many things for her. Grog did not stop him as much as he should’ve, but if Scanlan wanted to treat his best buddy to an arcade-sized machine of _Half Court Hoops_ and have it sent to Westruun, Pike could only surrender to the spending spree. 

They were only fifteen minutes into the Exandria Museum of Jazz History, including the part where Scanlan had to sign an autograph for the ticket taker, when Scanlan got a phone call from his label. 

Pike barely noticed until Scanlan had drifted off and she heard a hissed, “Are you fucking kidding me?” behind her. 

Grog stepped away from a display on The White Duke’s white double-neck bass guitar to wait for Scanlan. He caught them paying attention and she could tell by the angry, rueful look in his eye what was going to happen. 

He finished the call with a frown, but forced an apologetic smile over it. “Hey, guys, I’m sorry. I’ve got to back in to record more of those dubs.” 

Grog scoffed. “Aw, what! We just got here. And you said we were gonna go to the place with the meat salad!” 

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. You can still do that. I’ll call my assistant and have her show you around. Also she’ll have my credit card, so you can get whatever, on me.” 

“That’s not exactly the same as having you around. Grog didn’t come here to hang out with your assistant,” Pike said. 

Scanlan’s face stayed carefully neutral, but he paled at her words and she immediately felt bad. It wasn’t like Scanlan was ditching them for something fun or other new pop star friends. “Sorry,” he said weakly. “I’m under contract now. I’ve got to.” 

Grog, surprisingly, stepped in, clapping his hand on Scanlan’s slight shoulder. “It’s okay, buddy. We’ll come back out and hit the town with you tomorrow. I’m sure we be clubbin’ tomorrow night, am I right?” 

A small smile turned up the corner of his mouth. He nodded. “We will, I promise.” Then as a quieter aside that Pike could still hear, he added, “Then later, you and me. The Cloud Top, buddy.” 

Due to the hushed planning and Grog’s immediate response that he tried to hide from Pike, she assumed it was a strip club they were intending to ditch her for. She rolled her eyes. 

A half hour after Scanlan left a young woman with very neat, glossy hair, looking through her phone, introduced herself as Mina and said the rest of their outing was on Scanlan’s dime. Pike tried talking to her a few times, but she’d just nod and go back to whatever she was doing. After the museum, they went to a few shops and then to dinner. Most of the time, Scanlan’s assistant stood several paces behind them and talked on her phone. 

When they were ready to go back, Mina ordered them a taxi but didn’t come with them. 

Once Pike and Grog put their new things back with their luggage, they wandered around the quiet mansion for a while and wound up playing Egyptian Rat in the parlor. When over half the deck of cards was in her hands voices sounded from the foyer. 

There was a whole slew of people leaving, that Pike hadn’t even known were there. There were a few guys carrying equipment out the door and hanging back near the stairs were some guys dressed down in clothes she was sure were still way more expensive than necessary. There were three tall women in careless workout clothes that still looked like fashion models. They were standing around Scanlan, who looked less animated in conversation than usual. One of the men, who was wearing sunglasses even inside, slapped a little plastic bag of something in Scanlan’s hand as they were talking. 

They left in a cloud of comments about parties and gigs and people Pike had never heard of. She thought two of the people, as they walked past, managed to look at her both like she wasn’t there and like she was funny to look at. She plucked at her clothes self consciously and thought maybe she shouldn’t have brought denim overalls to wear at a mansion. 

Grog and Pike walked up to Scanlan while he chugged most of a bottle of water. 

“Shit, that was a long session,” he said, his voice still a little worn. “Sorry about that guys. You had fun though, right.” 

Grog nodded emphatically, even though they had mostly just talked and hung out like they would at home. 

“Great!” Scanlan said with a bright, fake smile that didn’t cut through his tiredness. “There’s a show at The Dockside we could make if we leave soon. Some kind of symphonic psychadelic folk pop deal.” 

Pike and Grog shrugged-- neither of them were very particular about music. The only time Pike _needed_ to listen to anything specific was when she was in the gym. 

He held his hand open and showed a small plastic bag filled with white powder. “A little starter?” he said, sort of edging a shoulder towards her, looking only at Grog. “I don’t know if coke goes well with symphonic psychadelic folk pop but it’s worth a try.” 

Grog made a very rapid series of faces that suggested he was very much on board with trying it until he noticed Pike was standing right next to him. He looked sheepishly at Pike and said very dubiously, “No?” 

Pike bit back a grin. She didn’t much care about drugs so long as it didn’t get out of hand. She didn’t think a small dose would turn bad. At the same time, in generalities, she didn’t think Grog, or Scanlan for that matter, was a good mix for stimulants, so she didn’t think she should encourage it. 

Scanlan shrugged and pocketed it. 

Pike didn’t particularly want to try cocaine, but she weirdly felt left out. “Hey, what about me?” 

Scanlan’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. “What about you?”

“Aren’t you going to offer me any?” 

“Um. No!” His whole face was at max disbelief. “You can’t do coke!” 

“Why not?” 

Scanlan literally sputtered. “You’re… you’re… You’re a god student! It’s illegal!” 

“Sarenrae’s teachings are about redemption and forgiveness and not the laws of man. There’s nothing in her wisdom that says you can’t ever try drugs.” 

Grog looked at her a little uneasily, like he wasn’t sure about where he was standing. “You wanna do coke?” 

“Well, no. Not really. I just don’t like being treated like a child. You could at least offer me some.”

Scanlan simultaneously rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. 

“Does that mean we can do it?” Grog said, motioning between himself and Scanlan. 

“Yeah, what about it, boss lady?” Scanlan said.

And if she hadn’t already been annoyed, that definitely did it. “I’m nobody’s boss. If you want to do it, do it.” 

“What else is spring break for, really?” Scanlan said, looking too smug about whatever he was thinking. 

“I won’t,” she added, “at least, not… not cocaine. But I also don’t want to be sober while you two get high.” 

Grog shrugged. “You could just have some puff? That’s nice and mellow. Oh, actually can we get some of that instead?” 

Scanlan eyed Grog questioningly. “You’re really gonna let her get high?” 

“Let me?” Pike spat. “He’s not my owner.” 

Scanlan held his hands up in surrender. “Alright, shit, I give up. Excuse me for wanting to not be the worst influence here.” 

“You’re excused,” Pike teased. 

Scanlan sighed and, defeated, said, “We can all smoke some weed. That’ll be fine. It’s a good… compromise, I guess. What else is spring break for, really?” 

“Can you get it delivered?” Grog asked, eyebrows near the top of his skull. “Is that how rich you are? You can just bring drug dealers to you anytime?? I have to go to my guy’s--I mean.” Grog stopped again and looked at Pike’s reaction. 

Scanlan laughed. “Actually yeah. I’ve got some upstairs, but,” he said and looked suspiciously at Pike. “Would this really be your first time?” 

A surge of defensiveness filled her chest at him assuming her to be a naive little baby who never did anything bad, even though this was actually true. “Yes.” 

Scanlan cocked a heavy eyebrow and tried for suggestive, marred a little by how tired he looked. “Then I’m honored you would trust me with busting your--” 

Grog coughed loudly and fakely, glaring at Scanlan, who stopped saying about he was about to say--like Pike didn’t expect that coming from a mile away-- but refused to look apologetic about it. 

Scanlan waved Grog off. “Yes, well, your first time _getting high_ probably shouldn’t be at a loud concert with lots of people. That’s a bad scene.” 

“Yeah,” Grog agreed. 

“We’ll just stay here,” Scanlan said with a shrug. “Watch a movie or something.” 

“Yeah!” Grog said, high fiving Scanlan, probably betraying just how much he’d wanted to spend time with his buddy. “Absolutely Pike should get high in a safe environment.” 

Pike couldn’t help but snort a laugh. She felt a little guilty. Illegal drugs were complicated. She felt worse about how people were taken advantage of by drug dealers and the law than simply by the fact it was illegal. But marijuana didn’t seem that bad. And there was something to be said for actually having an experience, instead of just having an opinion about it. 

So Pike nodded definitively. 

Scanlan clapped his hands. “Let’s rock the cheeba with Pike, apparently.” 

They followed him up to his room, which was not as lascivious as she’d been thinking. In fact it looked pretty barren. There was a sleek black dresser against white walls, and a big window alongside the bed that had dark purple curtains, currently drawn. But other than the bed, and a cushion for a papasan chair--no actual chair in sight-- the room was filled with packing boxes. There was an open door on the opposite side of the room, exposing a bathroom that at least looked pretty littered with toiletries on the counter. 

They all sat on the papasan cushion--well, Pike and Scanlan sat on it because they could fit, Grog sat next to them on the bare wood floor--while Scanlan packed a purple, somewhat phallic pipe. It was actually very pretty, in all mottled shades of purple and a little bit of pink, like ink melting in water. There was a small bag about the size and look of a shaving kit next to Scanlan. It had a lighter and some plastic bags and what looked like little sheets of stickers inside. He took out a banged up old zippo and flicked it on, handing her the pipe at the same time. 

Pike’s heart jumped into her throat for a second. “Me? First?” 

Grog and Scanlan both nodded in the same way that made Pike feel like she was definitely being hazed as the youngest. She took the pipe, feeling awkward and watched, but not willing to back down since they were clearly getting some amusement out of this. Scanlan shielded the bowl of the pipe, just barely touching her fingers, and lit leaves stuffed in the pipe. 

“Now, inhale. And appreciate how much I didn’t say ‘suck.’” 

Even if she hadn’t laughed, she still would have coughed. She’d assumed it was just like smoking, but realized when the smoke started to fill her mouth that she’d never smoked cigarettes before either. Scanlan and Grog laughed but then gave her instructions on how to do it right, which she didn’t really understand. But she tried it again with more success, or at least it was less abrasive the second time. 

Pike didn’t know how much you had to smoke to get high, and while they were smoking she didn’t feel impaired at all. They kept passing it around between them, and Pike just went with it until the bowl was empty. 

They moved downstairs to the entertainment room, where there was a big pull down screen and a projector, and they started watching _Top Gun_ at Grog’s choice. After almost an hour, Pike felt nothing aside from finding Grog and Scanlan’s bro-talk more difficult to pay attention to than normal, and finding _Top Gun_ more boring than usual. 

She leaned forward around Grog and poked Scanlan’s shoulder. “I don’t think it did anything.” 

Scanlan looked at her very judiciously. “It can take a while, but we did all share a bowl. I don’t know if more is a good idea for your first time.”

“Let’s fuck it up, buddy,” Grog said, without looking away from the movie. “We’re only here for a few days. ‘Sides, what can happen here? We’re in a mansion!” 

“What else is spring break for, really?” Pike quoted Scanlan from earlier with a grin.

So Scanlan shrugged and they smoked together again, passing the pipe between them on the couch. It was all fine and she spent some time wondering if she’d know if she got high, or if she was high already and it was just the hum in her body. And she was thinking about it, what it meant to be high, and why altering the chemicals in your blood was illegal, and what people in movies did when they were high and if she’d do any of them. 

“Hey, Pike, your pick,” Scanlan said, his voice sounding just a little bit off. Like he was further away than she remembered. 

“What?” She’d heard him but she had no idea what he was talking about.

“You’ve got to pick the movie. What’s next?” 

Pike looked at the screen, surprised to see the credits rolling by. Surprised even more to know she’d watched the end of the movie and knew it was over, but hadn’t really _known_ it was over. She knew she wanted to watch _Evil Dead_. Instead she laughed. 

The boys looked at each other and said, “she’s stoned,” at the same time. Which was funny so she laughed. And they laughed at her. And she laughed again, not because it was funny that she was high, but because they thought it was funny. She wanted to explain that but it took a while to stop laughing. Eventually she did say which part was funny and felt pretty justified and said she wanted to watch _Evil Dead_. 

Scanlan vetoed that because he said he wasn’t gonna watch anyone get chainsawed when he was high. They compromised, somehow, on _Rocky Horror Picture Show._

Fifteen minutes in, she found after checking a clock because it hadn’t entirely felt like that and she didn’t know how to explain how, she gasped. “Oh! It’s because it’s horror _and_ a musical!” 

“What?” Scanlan said, his big brown eyes looked redder and sadder than before. 

“You’re a musical,” she said. And added, “person,” for grammar. 

“What?” Grog said. 

“It’s why it’s a compromise!” 

Scanlan laughed, which was a really nice sound. Had she known it was a really nice sound before? Had she ever heard him laugh at all before? 

“Yeah, I mean, I know. I know that a while ago. Knew.” 

Well, lah-dee-dah, she thought and wasn’t sure she said out loud, which was probably for the best because she didn’t actually want to say it. 

Being high was fun. She felt good, really good. She felt wavy, and a little bit like her feet were sunk into the floor and her body was aware of the stuff inside the couch that held her up, but good. She wondered if Sarenrae didn’t like this. It was against the law, but not all the time or everywhere and it wasn’t inherently bad. There was the drug and what people could do after the drug. Two different parts. Sarenrae probably had two different paths of forgiveness for that. But if all she did was sit there and feel good, Sarenrae probably wouldn’t have any problem with it. 

She did focus on that for a while, but get kept getting distracted by how the movie and time didn’t seem to be doing the same thing. The movie was going at the exact same pace as always but whenever her thoughts turned away it felt like so much more time passed. Like her thoughts were time traveling, but the movie moved on reliably. 

“Whoa,” she thought, but also said out loud. 

“ _Now_ she’s stoned,” Scanlan said. 

Time continued to move oddly. It sort of pressed heavy on her. So maybe being high wasn’t so fun. She wasn’t scared or distressed, just more thinky than she’d thought she’d be. She had a lot of thoughts going on inside her, which she thought might be important to talk about but couldn’t ever really get them to her tongue. She lost track of the movie for comparison and didn’t really know how long things happened after. She just felt slow, and physically weighed down. She knew she would be able to move if she tried, but she couldn’t try. It felt like hours. Scanlan and Grog talked to her, but she only nodded and when she felt she needed to show she was fine she carefully planned out a “yes” in response. 

She spent a lot of thoughts noticing how different high was for the boys than for her. Now she was settling down into herself, but before she couldn’t stop laughing. Grog had got more slow and quiet. While Scanlan almost seemed to get more eloquent, but also fidgety. 

But then the boys fetched some food from the kitchens-- she wondered how they could make it in there but how she couldn’t even when she was sober-- and time sort of snapped back into normal movement. She lifted up her arm from the couch successfully and everything started to feel lighter again. 

The food was _amazing_. She wasn’t even hungry before but once it was in front of her she couldn’t stop. 

“Rich people potato chips are so much better,” she said, staring at the bag she’d definitely seen at her grocery store. Which meant they put superior rich people chips into the same bags and sent them to rich people stores, while everyone else got inferior chips. “It’s not fair.” 

“I mean,” Scanlan said, holding a very tiny bag of what looked like powdered sugar, but he grabbed a pinch of it between his fingers and snorted it so it probably wasn’t. He sniffed a few times and looked back at Pike. “That’s because you’re high. Food always tastes better when you’re high. But also rich people do get better shit. They also get a lot of free shit. It’s been the most disheartening part of this whole move on up.” 

“Fucked up,” Grog said from his stationary spot between them. He was holding the pipe and had obviously smoked some more, but Pike hadn’t noticed that either. 

There were too many simultaneous thoughts hitting Pike. Scanlan looked very serious and was saying words like “disheartening,” which was weird. Food inequality was bogus. Also they were toward the end of the movie and Pike missed “Time Warp” somehow. Grog looked to be pretty molded into the couch, and his eyes were very red-rimmed. 

But what she said was, pointing at the tiny bag of not-powdered sugar, “Is that a smart idea?” 

Scanlan shrugged. It seemed to take a while. “Not here for a long time. I’m here for a good time.” 

The tone of his voice was very weird. Pike didn’t like it at all. The light bright spots in his voice were small and dark instead. She didn’t know if that was cocaine or something worse, but she didn’t think illegal drugs were too far different from legal ones in that they probably shouldn’t be mixed together. She took a bag of grapes, nutella, and a tub of tropical fish shaped gummies from the table and leaned back against the couch. 

She’d just have to keep an eye on Scanlan. 

That didn’t pan out very well. Pike and Scanlan were both on the small side and when Grog sat between them, well… Maybe because Grog was blocking her view, maybe because she got caught up in the new movie she didn’t know the name, but probably because of the weed, Pike kind of forgot Scanlan was there for a while. 

She talked to Grog a bit, and he mostly laughed and started to fall asleep sitting up. And then the movie was over. By that point she didn’t feel so giddy and her eyes didn’t feel cottony any more, and she was just starting to feel sleepy. When she leaned down to see across Grog and ask if he wanted to watch another movie or go to bed, Scanlan wasn’t there anymore. She didn’t remember hearing or seeing him sneak off. 

As soon as Pike stood up, Grog kicked a bag of potato chips off the couch and stretched out on it, burying his head under a throw pillow. He muttered, “Night, Pike,” even though she hadn’t announced she was leaving. 

There was food everywhere and the light from the projector was still going. And she was suddenly aware there was a whole empty, quiet mansion around her. 

Well, mostly quiet. 

She heard some lyrical tinkling in the distance and followed it. 

Empty hallways filled only with an increasingly louder piano melody brought her to a half empty library she vaguely remembered being shown before. There were a few chairs, several boxes of books, and a piano. 

Scanlan looked pretty slumped in the chair, carelessly playing a simple refrain. Walking up to the door she’d had a lot of time to try to think of what it was, but she didn’t know the song. It couldn’t have been the whole thing, but he never finished, playing it over and over again. 

He didn’t look up when she walked over and sat on the piano bench next to him. 

“That’s pretty.” 

He hmmed and kept playing. 

There was only a small lamp casting light from on top of an unopened box for another lamp. Even in the low light, Scanlan looked washed out and pale. The circles under his eyes looked darker than before. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Super keen, jelly bean.” 

Pike touched his forehead. It was hot and clammy. He jerked away lazily and stopped playing with strangled slap of keys. 

“Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” he said, a little whine entering his voice. 

“You look really bad and you have a fever.” 

“So? You have a dumb nose.” 

“What?” 

“That’s a lie. You don’t have a dumb nose.” 

“What happened?”

He sort of shrugged. “Nothing. Weird reaction. I’m fine.” This time his voice was more involved in the lie, but she still knew it was a lie. 

“You look wrecked and sweaty.” 

Scanlan sighed loudly and hit the keys in frustration, but kept tapping, and then turned it back into the refrain he was playing earlier. After a few bars, he said, “I’m fine, Pike. It’s not like it’s my first time I’ve had my ass kicked by an illicit substance. Just, you know, some advice since I’ve put you on the path of drug abuse and deviancy: don’t mix coke and a weed high. It has some undesirable side effects.” 

Pike didn’t really like the sound of his tone or the implication, but she didn’t really have a place to tell her brother’s buddy what to do with his life. 

“I’m not going to start a life of crime just because of some marijuana, Scanlan.” 

“You’ve obviously never seen _Reefer Madness_.” 

Pike ignored him. “What side effects?” 

Apparently Scanlan could ignore her too because he just kept playing, moving his hands to a higher octave. Trying to change the subject, Pike said, “What’s this song?”

Scanlan’s hand travelled further down the keys, across Pike’s space. In her strange, open post-high she could see little details on his skin she’d never seen before. The tips of his fingers were calloused, she assumed from strumming on a professional level, and she could see all the veins in his hands and skinny arms. 

“It’s something I’ve been working on for a while. Something my mother used to hum.” 

His voice was very closed off. He kept playing and didn’t look anywhere but forward even though there was no sheet music. 

There was probably no talking to him about it anymore. Still Pike couldn’t help but want to fix whatever was happening. 

“You’re really not gonna tell me why you ran off secretly and now you look like you’ve had food poisoning for a week.” 

His fingers came down hard on the keys again. “All you need to know is my after school PSA-- don’t do drugs. Which is what I should have told you hours ago.” 

“I’m fully capable of making my own decisions.” 

Scanlan laughed bitterly. “So am I, kiddo. That’s the problem.” 

Pike recoiled a little at that. She didn’t really understand what he meant and figured that trying to get it from him might open up a whole nother fight. She was suddenly very tired. “I’m gonna go to bed, okay.” 

Scanlan nodded silently, still playing. 

But before she walked out, she stopped by the door and said, “Hey, Scanlan. Please be careful. I’m sure you have a lot to deal with right now, with your contract and all these new people and success, but you should still, you know, take care of yourself. You can be here for a long time, not just a good time. I’m not trying to lecture you or be bossy or whatever. Just be careful, that’s all.” 

He stopped playing for a moment, but turned to face her and nodded. “Thanks, Pike.” 

“Night, Scanlan.” 

“Good night, Pike.” 

She made her way back to her room with no wrong turns and fell asleep the second she lay down. In the morning, Grog seemed happy missing out on the concert and teased Pike a little, even though he’d gotten way more stoned than she did. And Scanlan was as bright and chirpy as always, joining them for breakfast whistling something and smiling. 

Pike tried to catch his attention, to maybe see if he’d thought about their talk, but he didn’t especially notice her at all the following day. And for the rest of their spring break at the mansion. They went on a few more outings to concerts and restaurants and a waterpark once, but Scanlan was still pretty busy, fitting in interviews and meetings whenever they weren’t actively trying to get away from the mansion. 

So she assumed everything was at least going back to normal. Except the last day they were there, Scanlan visited her when she was packing up in the morning. 

He knocked on the open door and she waved him in. 

“What’s up?” 

He looked a little tense, and tugged his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I just wanted to apologize.” 

“For what?” 

“For being kind of a dick. And that first night. With the room, and the, um, rose petals.” 

“Oh,” she said, waving him off. “No big deal. It’s not like you didn’t have an extra room. I just hope your lady friend didn’t leave anything behind. That would have been really embarrassing.” 

Scanlan stood stock still for a second, staring at her with an odd expression before shaking it off. “Er, yeah. Thanks for being cool… about that.” 

“No problem.”

“Also I wanted to thank you for talking to me that night we all got stoned together. Things got a little too real for me and I wasn’t having a great time.” 

“Oh,” she shrugged awkwardly, feeling warm and buzzy in her chest. “It’s all good. Spring break, right? Stuff happens.” 

He sort of frown-smiled and nodded. “Anyway, I appreciate what you said. One day I’ll really pay you back.” 

“Gonna give me lots of your gold record money?” 

“No, but I will write you a song. I’m thinking something Dylan-esque like maybe, Cocaine Burnout Angel Eases My Mind In The Early Morning. Maybe. I’ll jazz it up.” 

Pike laughed. “Oh, I’m sure.” 

He winked and started walking out the door. “You’ll see. And you’ll love it!”

**Author's Note:**

> ~*~
> 
>  
> 
> a few notes: 
> 
> -cocaine burnout angel eases my mind in the early morning is a joke about one of the songs scanlan writes for pike in TSAR called "Late Night Angel." 
> 
> -if you don't know doing coke after marijuana can cause panic attacks, which is exactly what happened to scanlan. 
> 
> -tameila wrote an amazing fic called [give my regards to soul and romance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12552964) for [my story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11236068/chapters/25110756), which you should all read because it's amazing and give her all your love because she's amazing. 
> 
> -acecasinova drew a great fanart from the piano scene, which you can [like and reblog here](http://acecasinova.tumblr.com/post/166993395979/inktober-the-final-stretch-more-pikelan-this).
> 
> \- i hope you enjoyed. <3


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